Content deleted Content added
Undid revision 122879277 by 76.18.246.71 (talk) |
|||
Line 23:
'''''One Hundred Years of Solitude''''' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]: ''Cien años de soledad'') is a novel by [[Nobel Prize]] winning [[Colombia]]n author [[Gabriel García Márquez]] that was first published in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] in [[1967]] ([[Buenos Aires]]: Sudamericana), with an [[English language|English]] translation by [[Gregory Rabassa]] released in [[1970]] ([[New York City|New York]]: Harper and Row). The book is considered García Márquez's masterpiece, metaphorically encompassing the history of [[Colombia]] or [[Latin America]]. The novel chronicles a family's struggle, and the history of their fictional town, Macondo, for one hundred years. García Márquez acknowledges in his autobiography ''[[Living to Tell the Tale]]'' that Macondo was based on the towns where he spent his childhood. Like many other novels by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' crosses genres, combining elements of history, [[magical realism]], and pure fiction.
==Plot summary==
{{spoiler}}
All of the events of ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' take place in the fictional village of [[Macondo]] but relate to historical events. The town is founded by José Arcadio Buendía, a strong-willed and impulsive leader who becomes deeply interested in the mysteries of the universe when a band of [[Roma people|Gypsies]] visits Macondo, led by the recurring Melquíades. As the town grows, the fledgling government of the country takes an interest in Macondo's affairs, but they are held back by José Arcadio Buendía.
[[Civil war]] (the [[Thousand Days War]]) breaks out in the land, and Macondo soon takes a role in the war, sending a militia led by Colonel Aureliano Buendía, José Arcadio Buendía's son, to fight against the conservative regime. While the colonel is gone, Arcadio, his nephew, takes leadership of the town but soon becomes a brutal [[dictator]]. The [[Colombian Conservative Party|Conservatives]] capture the town, and Arcadio is shot by a firing squad.
The wars continue, with Colonel Aureliano narrowly avoiding death multiple times, until, weary of the meaningless fighting, he arranges a [[peace treaty]] that will last until the end of the novel. After the treaty is signed, Aureliano shoots himself in the chest, but survives. The town develops into a sprawling center of activity as foreigners arrive by the thousands. The foreigners begin a banana plantation near Macondo. The town prospers until a strike arises at the banana plantation. The national army is called in, and the protesting workers are gunned down and thrown into the ocean. At this time, Úrsula, the impossibly ancient widow of José Arcadio Buendía, remarks that "it was as if time was going in a circle".
After the banana worker massacre, the town is saturated by heavy rains that last for almost five years. Úrsula says that she is waiting for the rains to stop so that she can die at last. The last member of the Buendía line, named Aureliano Babilonia (originally referred to as Aureliano Buendía, before he discovers through Melquíades' parchments that Babilonia is his paternal surname), is born at this time. When the rains stop, Úrsula dies at last, and Macondo is left desolated.
Aureliano Babilonia is finally left in solitude at the crumbling Buendía house, where he studies the parchments of Melquíades, who has appeared as a ghost to him. He gives up on this task to have a love affair with his aunt, though he is unsure whether they are related. When she dies in childbirth and his son (who is born with a pig's tail) is eaten by ants, Aureliano is finally able to decipher the parchments. The house, and the town, disintegrate into a whirlwind as he translates the parchments, on which is contained the entire history of the Buendía family, as predicted by Melquíades. As he finishes translating, the entire town is obliterated from the world.
[[Image:One_Hundred_Years_Of_Solitude.png]]
hey
| |||